The technology of the present disclosure relates to a sheet conveying device and an image forming apparatus including the same.
In the related art, as a sheet conveying device of an inkjet printer and the like, there has been known a sheet conveying device that conveys a sheet by sucking and holding the sheet to/on an endless belt wound around a pair of tension rollers. The belt is formed with a plurality of air vents. At a radial inside of the belt, a negative pressure generating device is provided to apply negative pressure to the sheet via the plurality of air vents. At a radial outside of the belt, an ink head is provided to record an image by discharging ink to the sheet held on an outer peripheral surface of the belt.
The aforementioned negative pressure generating device has a fan case mounted with a fan. A top plate part of the fan case abuts an inner peripheral surface of the belt. The top plate part supports the sheet, which is held on the outer peripheral surface of the belt, from below via the belt. The top plate part is formed with a plurality of suction holes extending in a sheet conveyance direction. The suction holes allow the air vents of the belt to communicate with a negative pressure chamber of the fan case. In this way, negative pressure in the fan case applies to the sheet held on the outer peripheral surface of the belt via the air vents and the suction holes. As a consequence, the sheet is sucked to the outer peripheral surface of the belt.
In this type of conveying device, there is also a case where the sheet is interposed by a conveying roller pair and is conveyed without using the belt. In this conveying device, the sheet is directly sucked to the top plate part of the fan case via the suction holes. The sheet is conveyed by the conveying roller pair while coming into slide contact with the top plate part.